POLISH DEATH (Polska kostucha)

The authoress discusses the presence of death in the social public sphere in the context of Polish national identity. She describes the area of popular collective imagination that is part of a broader category: religiousness arising from folk culture. In the Polish public sphere the traditions of death are represented by two trends: the myths of the Passion and Martyrdom. The internal ties of the Polish tribe are sustained by the cult of ancestors and the practice of mourning, the symbol of which is Our Lady of Dolours from the pictures in Czestochowa and Lichen. As a consequence of the dolorous aspect of Polish fundamental tribal emotions people spontaneously organize themselves during religious and national festivals which commemorate the events that entailed a heavy toll of human life. The arche of the Polish death is terror, mourning and redemption by a sacrifice of blood.